All posts tagged ‘Neil deGrasse Tyson’

The astronomy and all-things science radio show StarTalk featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson wants to know what women want.

(Cue sexist jokes.)

No, seriously! StarTalklaunched a survey on October 9th to get a feel for audience satisfaction with the show. The results? StarTalk social media director Jeffrey Simons reports that the survey takers (and presumably, their audience) were predominantly male. By a significant margin. They want to address the gender imbalance and in order to do that, they need to figure out why there’s a gender imbalance.

(It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. — Winston Churchill)

Now StarTalk is running a second survey, but this time the survey is split up for men and women. They need female listeners, past and current, to chime in. Why do you love the show? Is there room for improvement? If you’ve stopped listening to the show for any specific reason, now’s the time to speak up! Women can submit their input on the Women’s StarTalk Survey, men at the Men’s StarTalk Survey. The surveys close Monday, December 10th.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Neil deGrasse Tyson! Let’s face it, there are a lot of smart people doing important things out there and Tyson is certainly one of them, but it takes a whole other kind of person to show passion for the education of the masses rather than sneer at the people intellectually below them. In a time and place where science remains continuously on trial, astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Dr. Tyson’s dedication as a science communicator makes him a person worthy of celebrating.

Have you ever wondered how the US got to the point where funding missions to space just isn’t that important? Paul Hildebrandt wondered, and he’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary and answer that question. GeekMom Nicole Wakelin talks with Paul about Fight For Space: Exploring the Future of Manned Spaceflight and learns what he hopes to achieve with his film. He’s already interviewed notables like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye and plans to speak with many more to discover how we can reignite our collective passion for space not just in ourselves, but in our kids.

I cried on July 8, 2011, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched as the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. I kept wondering why it had to come to an end and how things had gotten to a point where funding missions to space just wasn’t that important. What happened? How can we change it?

Paul Hildebrandt has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his documentary, Fight For Space: Exploring the Future of Manned Spaceflight, which will answer those questions. It will look at how the United States space program lost its edge and why it’s so very important that we get it back.

Hildebrandt has already spent time travelling the country to meet with some notable advocates of space exploration. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, astronaut Leroy Chiao, as well as astronomers, congressmen, engineers, and authors will all be included in the final documentary. They appear in the trailer and it’s hard not to get all fired up listening to them speak.

The goal here is not to solve the problem, but to start a discussion. There are complex social, political, and economic factors that each play a role in where our space program is today, and only by understanding them can we hope to have the program rebound and inspire future generations. It’s a difficult but not impossible task to excite children about the possibilities of space exploration as the whole nation was when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon.

If you’re passionate about space exploration and long for the day when we travel beyond the moon to Mars, then head over to the Fight For Space Kickstarter page to learn more, donate, and make this valuable documentary a reality.*

**I interviewed Paul Hildebrandt on the latest GeekMoms Podcast and he talked about his hopes for the film. Download the episode and hear what he had to say.**

It doesn’t matter where you start. Any exposure to astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson creates ever increasing urges to absorb more of this man’s wisdom, delivered with the charisma and wit rarely packaged in one person.

For example, a newly released video by science enthusiast Max Schlickenmeyer adds music and visuals along with Dr. Tyson’s answer to the question: “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” It may be obvious to you that every one of Dr. Tyson’s utterances are profound enough to warrant cinematographic treatment. But then we’d miss his huge smile. This grin is evident as he answers other questions submitted by Time readers. Responding to an inquiry about American students lagging behind in math and science, he said:

Get out of their way. Your kid is born a scientist. What does a scientist do? Look up and say, “I wonder what that is?” Then goes to find out. Let me poke it, let me break it, let me turn it around. That’s what kids do. You can’t let a kid alone for a minute without them laying waste to your house because they’re grabbing stuff off the shelves. What do we do? We prevent that. We prevent these depths of curiosity from revealing themselves even within our own residences… When [my kids] were young and still today, if they see something they want to experiment with, even if they might break it, I let it go. Let the experiment run its course. Because therein is the soul of curiosity that leads to the kind of mind you want as a scientist.

Then, of course, there are Dr. Tyson’s many interviews where science charms everyone and briefly we imagine a smarter more informed media, somewhat like Comedy Central’s fake news but for real. We let ourselves dream of movies that offer more scientific veracity along with the story line, as Dr. Tyson suggests.

If you watch a Dr. Tyson video, chances are you’re going to want another. He’s the X in an equation that ramps up the awesomeness of science and math.

Happy anniversary to the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, celebrating ten years since its opening. To celebrate, the Rose Center is looking for videos about how recent developments in science have moved you or affected your life in some way. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and rockstar astrophysicist, explains more: